The power of God’s love is always there for us

March 05, 2010|By ROBERT E. LIND

My wife and I have made two trips to San Francisco. It has become one of my favorite cities.

There is so much to see. The city looks like one great big hill. It runs from Fisherman’s Wharf on the bay up the hill to knob hill. You can visit a little jazz restaurant in China Town or a large dinner theater at the ritzy Fairmont Hotel.

You can view the Golden Gate Bridge or the somber Alcatraz sitting in the middle of the bay. There is the famous Ghirardelli Square and then Pier 91 with its 110 shops. A spectacular stop is the Grace Cathedral on Knob Hill. The magnificent cathedral is so large it took 54 years to build.

One of the delights of the city is its cable cars. They take a little time to get used to. We had to watch how others got on and off the cars. After watching for a little while my wife and I were jumping on and off like veterans.

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The last time we visited this city we went to see the cable car powerhouse. There we saw the giant motors that make the entire cable car system work. It’s interesting. The cable cars have no source of power themselves. There is nothing in the cable cars that makes them run. They have no engine, no motor, and no electrical power source. The secret is that under the surface of the streets of San Francisco there is an ever-moving cable, thus the name cable cars.

The big motors we saw in the cable powerhouse power the entire system. The cable runs in a groove cut in the streets. From the street you can’t see the cable but it is there. When the operator of the cable car, called the gripman, wants the car to move he pulls back on a giant gripper lever. This lever must be 4 or 5 feet long.

The lever extends up from the floor of the car. When the gripman pulls back on the lever don’t get in his way. He pulls with all his might. This activates a mechanism under the car that grips the moving cable. The car, now attached to the cable, begins to move. The cable moves at a steady 9 miles per hour. When the gripman wants to stop the car he shoves the lever forward, disconnecting the car from the cable. He then uses one or more of the three braking systems to stop the car.

One day I was thinking about how the cable car works and I thought about God’s love for us. God’s love is our power source. It is always there. It is always active. It is always full of power. All we have to do to use this power is to become attached to God’s power line.

Faith is the giant grip lever within each of us. It is capable of closing the clutch on the power line of God’s love. The obvious statement is that God’s love is the power filled cable. It is the power that is always there for our lives. It is running before we take hold. It will continue to run if we let go.

Think about this. We don’t originate life. We don’t terminate it. We just participate in it. His love is always there waiting for us to connect to it. We can or we cannot. That is entirely up to us. What is it the Bible says about the power of his love?

“If I speak in the tongues of men and angels and have not love I am nothing.” I’m just the cable car sitting there in the street, disconnected from power and useless. “If I have the power of prophecy and have not love, I am nothing. Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or boastful. Love never ends.

“Prophecy, knowledge, they will pass away. But faith, hope and love abide. These three. And the greatest of these is love.”

God’s love is there, always available to us. All we have to do is catch hold of it.

Question of the week: Who was called the beloved disciple? Last week’s question: Who helped Paul establish the church at Corinth? Answer: Priscilla and Aquila (Acts 18:2)

Robert Lind, Somerset, is a retired newspaper editor and publisher. He may be contacted through this newspaper or at rrlind@mac.com. To see what his granddaughter and her husband are experiencing in Haiti go to mshaiti.blogspot.com